Duke of Aquitaine, First known singer-poet in the vernacular, DUKE OF AQUITAINE IX, COUNT OF ANJOU VIII, Hertug, Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror, Troubador, Duc, d'Aquitaine, de Gascogne, Comte, de Poitiers, de Poitou, Croisé

He succeeded his father in 1086 as GUILLAUME IX Duke of Aquitaine, GUILLAUME VII Comte de Poitou. Albert of Aix records that "Guillaume comte et prince du Poitou de la famille d'Henri III empereur" crossed Hungary peacefully with Welf Duke of Bavaria and "la noble comtesse Ida de la marche d'Autriche", entered the territory of the Bulgars in which "le duc des Bulgares nommé Guzh" refused their passage into Adrianople, but that Guillaume captured "le duc des Bulgares" who was forced to allow the pilgrims to continue[459], undated but in a passage adjacent to text which records events in 1101.

According to Albert of Aix, after the army was dispersed in Asia Minor by the Turks, Duke Guillaume fled to Longinach near Tursolt, from where he was rescued and brought to Antioch by Tancred's forces[460].

He was a troubadour and composer of lyric poetry. The Chronicle of Saint-Maxence records the death "1126 IV Id Feb" of "Willelmus dux Aquitanorum" and his burial "Pictavis civitate apud Novum Monasterium"[461]. The necrology of the Prieuré de Fontaines records the death "10 Feb" of "Guillermus dux Aquitanorum"[462].

m firstly (1089, divorced 1090) as her first husband, ERMENGARDE d'Anjou, daughter of FOULQUES IV "le Rechin" Comte d'Anjou & his first wife Hildegarde de Baugency ([1068]-Jerusalem 1 Jun 1146). The Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines refers to the daughter of "Fulco" as "comitissam Redonensem" but does not name her[463]. "Fulco Andegavensis comes" donated property to Angers with the consent of "filiis meis Gaufrido et Fulconello et filia mea Ermengarde" by charter dated 23 Jun 1096[464]. William of Tyre names her "Hermingerda", gives her father's name implying that she was born from his fifth marriage, and names her first husband "Pictaviensium comitis Willelmi", her divorce and her second husband "comes Brittaniæ"[465]. She married secondly ([1093]) as his second wife, Alain IV "Fergant" Duke of Brittany. The Gesta Consulum Andegavorum records that "comitissa Brittaniæ" was the daughter of Foulques & his first wife "filiam Lancelini de Baugenciaco", adding that she became a nun at "Jerusalem in ecclesia Sanctæ Annæ" after her husband died[466]. "Fulco Andecavorum comes nepos Goffridi Martelli…consulis" donated property to Angers with the consent of "Ermenjarde filia sua comitissa Brittaniæ" by charter dated 12 Apr 1109[467]. The necrology of Angers Cathedral records the death "Kal Jun" of "Ermengardis comitissa Britanniæ mater Conan ducis et soror Fulconis regis Hierosolymitani"[468]. The Annals of St Salvator Redon record that "Ermengardeque Alani conjugem, vere piam ac religiosam" was buried at the abbey of Redon[469].

m secondly (1094, divorced 1115) PHILIPPA [Mathilde] de Toulouse, daughter of GUILLAUME IV Comte de Toulouse & his second wife Emma de Mortain (-28 Nov 1117). The Chronicle of Saint-Maxence records the marriage of "Guillelmus" and "Philippam…filiam Willelmi comitis Tolosani et neptem Raimundi de Sancto Egidio"[470]. Robert of Torigny refers to, but does not name, "filiam unam" of "comes Tolosanus frater Raimundi comitis Sancti Ægidii" & his wife, who married "Guillermus comes Pictavensis et dux Aquitanorum"[471]. "Guillelmus…Aquitainie similiter et Vasconie dux et comes" confirmed donations to Sainte-Croix, Bordeaux by "genitor noster Guillelmus qui et Gaufridus vocatus est" with the consent of "Mathildis uxor…" by charter dated 23 Mar 1096[472]. It is assumed that Mathilde and Philippa refer to the same person. "Philippia" daughter of "Wilelmi comitis Tolose" and wife of Guillaume Comte de Poitou made a joint donation with her husband to Toulouse Saint-Sernin dated Jul 1098[473]. She is also named in an undated donation by Bertrand Comte de Toulouse which names her father but not her husband[474]. “Philippæ comitissæ…Emmæ filia” reached agreement with “Bernardus-Atonis filius Ermengardis” by charter dated 1114[475]. Orderic Vitalis recounts that "Hildegarde Ctss de Poitou" complained to the synod of Reims, held in Oct 1119 by Pope Calixtus II, that her husband had abandoned her for "Malberge wife of the vicomte de Châtellerault"[476]. This is inconsistent with the date of death of Philippa, shown above, not to mention the difference of first name. She became a nun. The necrology of the Prieuré de Fontaines records the death "28 Nov" of "Philippa monacha, Pictavensis comitissa"[477].

Mistress (1): AMAUBERGE [Dangerose], wife of AIMERY [I] Vicomte de Châtellerault, daughter of ---. She left her husband to live with Duke Guillaume, for which he was excommunicated. Orderic Vitalis recounts that "Hildegarde Ctss de Poitou" complained to the synod of Reims, held in Oct 1119 by Pope Calixtus II, that her husband had abandoned her for "Malberge wife of the vicomte de Châtellerault"[478].

William IX (French: Guillaume de Poitiers ; Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have certain historical importance, he's best known as the earliest troubadour[1] — a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language — whose work survived.

[edit] Ducal careerWilliam was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife, Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court, but the Church at first considered him illegitimate because of his father's earlier divorces and his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William's legitimacy.

[edit] Early career, 1088–1102William inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father. In 1088, at the age of only sixteen, William married his first wife, Ermengarde, the daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou. She was reputedly beautiful and well-educated, but also suffered from severe mood-swings, vacillating between vivacity and sullenness. She was considered a nag, and had a habit of retiring in bad temper to a cloister after an argument, cutting off all contact with the outside world until suddenly making a reappearance at court as if her absence had never occurred. Such behaviour, coupled with her failure to conceive a child, led William to send her back to her father and have the marriage dissolved (1091).

In 1094 he remarried to Philippa, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse. By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including his eventual successor, William X. His second son, Raymond, eventually became the Prince of Antioch in the Holy Land, and his daughter Agnes married firstly Aimery V of Thouars and then Ramiro II of Aragon, reestablishing dynastic ties with that ruling house.

William invited Pope Urban II to spend the Christmas of 1095 at his court. The pope urged him to "take the cross" (i.e. the First Crusade) and leave for the Holy Land, but William was more interested in exploiting the absence on Crusade of Raymond IV of Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press a claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the Crusade of 1101, an expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099. To finance it, he had to mortgage Toulouse back to Bertrand, the son of Raymond IV.

William arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His record as a military leader is not very impressive. He fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness led to his being ambushed on several occasions, with great losses to his own forces. In September 1101, his entire army was destroyed by the Seljuk Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped, and, according to Orderic Vitalis, he reached Antioch with only six surviving companions.

[edit] Conflict with Church and wife, 1102–1118William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to this was to demand absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop completed reading the anathema, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, "I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess Dangereuse (Dangerosa), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her nickname La Maubergeonne), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess." Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevrault, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. While in residence she may have had direct conversations or correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois, who was in constant contact with Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey. Philippa did not remain there long, however: the abbey records state that she died on the 28 November 1118.

[edit] Later career, 1118–1126Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained—although it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven-year revolt in order to avenge his mother's mistreatment, as Ralph of Diceto claimed, only to be captured by his father. Other records flatly contradict such a thing. Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 1113; but at that time, the young William was only thirteen and his father's liaison with Dangereuse had not yet begun. Father and son improved their relationship after the marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault, Dangereuse's daughter by her husband, in 1121.

William was readmitted to the Church around 1120, after making concessions to it. However, he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first wife, Ermengarde, who had, upon the death of Philippa, stormed down from Fontevrault to the Poitevin court, demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of Aquitaine—presumably in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa. In October 1119, she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims being held by Pope Calixtus II and demanded that the Pope excommunicate William (again), oust Dangereuse from the ducal palace, and restore herself to her rightful place. The Pope "declined to accommodate her"; however, she continued to trouble William for several years afterwards, thereby encouraging him to join the Reconquista efforts underway in Spain.

Between 1120 and 1123 William joined forces with the Kingdoms of Castile and León. Aquitanian troops fought side by side with Castilians in an effort to take Cordoba. During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the seventh century.

In 1122, William lost control of Toulouse, Philippa's dower land, to Alfonso Jordan, the son and heir of Raymond IV, who had taken Toulouse after the death of William IV. He did not trouble to reclaim it. He died on 10 February 1126, aged 55, after suffering a short illness.

[edit] Poetic career William from a 13th-century chansonnier.William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a troubadour - a lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular language called Provençal or Occitan. An anonymous 13th-century vida of William remembers him thus:

The Count of Poitiers was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his womanizing, and a fine composer and singer of songs. He traveled much through the world, seducing women.

He was the earliest troubadour whose work survives. Eleven of his songs survive (Merwin, 2002). The song traditionally numbered as the eighth (Farai chansoneta nueva) is of dubious attribution, since its style and language are significantly different (Pasero 1973, Bond 1982). Song 5 (Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh) has two significantly different versions in different manuscripts. The songs are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou (lo coms de Peitieus). The topics vary, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual and literary prowess, and feudal politics. His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Petrarch, and François Villon. Ezra Pound mentions him in Canto VIII:

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers, had brought the song up out of Spain with the singers and viels...

In Spirit of Romance Pound also calls William IX "the most 'modern' of the troubadours":

For any of the later Provençals, i.e., the high-brows, we have to... 'put ourselves into the Twelfth Century' etc. Guillaume, writing a century earlier, is just as much of our age as of his own. —Ezra Pound, cited in Bond 1982, p. lxxvi William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since the Merovingian era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.

One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz (Since I have the desire to sing,/I'll write a verse for which I'll grieve). It concludes:

I have given up all I loved so much: chivalry and pride; and since it pleases God, I accept it all, that He may keep me by Him. I enjoin my friends, upon my death, all to come and do me great honour, since I have held joy and delight far and near, and in my abode. Thus I give up joy and delight, and squirrel and grey and sable furs. Orderic Vitalis refers to William composing songs (c. 1102) upon his return from the Crusade of 1101. These might be the first "Crusade songs".

Title: Count of Poitou. William was a leader of the First Crusade, much admired for his prowess, generosity & handsome appearance. He was the first known troubadour &, as such, a key figure in the history of European literature.

Sources:

The book, 'Richard the Lion-Hearted', by John Gillingham

The book, 'Kings & Queens of Great Britain'

The book, 'Eleanor of Aquitaine'

The book, 'An Autobiography of Eleanor'

--------------------

William IX of Aquitaine (October 22, 1071 – February 10, 1126, also Guillaume or Guilhem d'Aquitaine), nicknamed the Troubador was Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou as William VII of Poitou between 1086 and 1126. He was also one of the leaders of the crusade of 1101 and one of the first medieval vernacular poets.

His Occitan name was Guilhèm de Peitieus.

--------------------

WILLIAM IX OF AQUITAINE – THE TROUBADOUR: His role and that of his wife, Ermengarde, and his granddaughters - Eleanor of Aquitaine, and her daughter, Marie de Champagne – in the development of courtly love poetry and the Arthurian romances

• Extract from Duby, Georges: 'The Knight, The Lady, And the Priest. The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France'. 1983, Allen Lane, London p159:

“ ..ERMENGARDE ..was given in marriage by her father Fouque Rechin, to William of Acquitaine. After William had repudiated her she was married to the count of Nantes. She tried to leave him for Fontevraud, asking that the marriage be annulled. But the bishops refused, and Robert of Arbrissel had to send her back to her husband, exhorting her to be obedient, to accept her lot in life, her “order” as a wife and a mother. (Patrologie Latinae 176, 987) She was to be patient and resigned, he said, and follow a little rule specially designed for her. It provided for much giving of alms, but neither too much prayer nor too much mortification, so that her body should remain healthy. What she was supposed to do was endure even under pain of death, even were she to be burned alive, as the wife of her great grandfather, Fouque Nerra had been burned for alleged adultery. But ERMENGARDE, the daughter of a prince, astounded the bishops at the Council of Reims in 1119 by appearing before them, widow at last, to accuse her first husband of bigamy. But then, had not she herself, they might have replied, in both her marriages, shown herself to be difficult and disobedient?”

“The intrusion of the churchmen into conjugal matters caused resentment on the parts of the husbands. WILLIAM OF AQUITAINE, supposed author of the earliest Occitan poems and the first exponent of courtly love, in the tenth song of the Jeanroy edition of his works makes fun of women who fall under the sway of priests and “frustrate the love of knights.” They commit mortal sin, he says, and should be burned at the stake, like wives who commit adultery. He then introduces the metaphor of the firebrand, with its obvious erotic connotation. True, the poem is supposed to be comic, to make men laugh amongst themselves. I interpret it not as a precursor to the chivalric debates between priest and knight that were to be popular a hundred years later, but as an angry expression of the animosity husbands felt against spiritual directors who challenged their power and encouraged their wives to be frigid. This is the only direct echo that has survived such feelings. At the point we have now reached, the beginning of the twelfth century, the voices of the servants of God drown out all other sounds.”

• Extract from Tannahill, Reay: Sex in History. 1980, Hamish Hamilton, London p262-3: “The credit for that [breathing life into courtly love poetry], as far as is known belonged to a southerner, one of the most libertine seigneurs of his day, GUILHEM, SEVENTH COUNT OF POITIERS AND NINTH DUKE OF AQUITANE, the most powerful nobleman in western Christendom. Guilhem (1071-1127) must have been well acquainted with the Hispano-Arabic love poetry and philosophies of love. He was married to Phillipa of Aragon (even if he seems to have paid her little attention), while one of his sisters was the wife of Alfonso VI of Castile, and another of Pedro of Aragon. The story goes that, comfortably adjusted to a life of sensuality and seduction, GUILHEM found his activities seriously curtailed by the advent of a preacher, Robert d’Arbrissal, who succeeded in converting many of the ladies of his court to the belief that the fires of hell were being stoked for adulteresses. GUILHEM, deeply troubled, devoted his mind to the problem, and the result of his meditations soon became apparent in his poems. Frank eroticism had formerly been their style, but this now gave way to something that strongly resembled the ennobling love of Ibn Hazm – without the chastity. Love, GUILHEM argued, was not an abasement but an exaltation, not a sordid sin, but a divine mystery, and the lady within whose gift it lay was a goddess to be adored. Some scholars believe that his change of view came from the heart (eg Bezzola, ‘Guillaume IX et les origins de l’amour courtois’ Romania LXVI, 1940 pp145-237), although the aura of cynical expediency is not easy to dissipate, but whatever the truth he appears to have convinced his ladies, who were happy to take on the unfamiliar role of goddess. And even if, in cold fact, the new love was just as adulterous as the old, it sounded a good deal more refined. (Note – Love was considered in medieval times as a gift freely given (which remains true enough today) and this, by definition excluded it from marriage, a business contract in which personal considerations played no part.) GUILHEM’S blend of love-desire and ennobling love soon became a favourite theme of wandering scholars, singers, poets and jongleurs (general entertainers), and a kind of formula began to develop.”

• Extract from Tannahill, Reay: Sex in History. 1980, Hamish Hamilton, London p266-7: “It was, appropriately enough GUILHELM’S [THE TROUBADOUR, OF ACQUITAINE] GRANDDAUGHTER, ELEANOR OF ACQUITAINE, who helped to establish the ideal of courtly love in northern France when she married Louis VII in 1137, but it did not entirely suit the northern temperament, which preferred good meaty adventure stories to undiluted sentiment. ELEANOR AND HER DAUGHTERS therefore turned their attention to encouraging a synthesis of the two. For some centuries, the north had relied for its entertainment on the chansoms de geste (songs of action), which were long assonant poems delivered as a kind of recitative to a simple musical instrument and dealt mainly with the exploits of warriors and heroes, feudal lords, and Christian chevaliers of the time of Charlemagne. In the early twelfth century, the roman (romance) also developed, a tale in rhymed verse designed to be declaimed to a small audience and usually taking for its theme a quest or voyage through a dream world which was the scene of marvellous adventures in love and war. The early romans, reflecting the rediscovery of the Classical World, were historical dramas with such titles as the Romance of Alexander, the Romance of Thebes, and the Romance of Troy, but for political reasons it became desirable to find subjects nearer home. ELEANOR, by this time (1170) married to Henry II of Normandy and England, was instrumental in bringing into fashion the Celtic myths of Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, an ‘ideal’ ancient society which lent itself admirably to being gilded with modern dreams and embroidered with the symbols of courtly love. She herself patronized many distinguished troubadours, including Bernart de Ventadorn, while her daughters, notably MARIE DE CHAMPAGNE, followed in the family tradition. It was MARIE’s chaplain, Andreas, who produced the famous Art of Courtly Love, a treatise that owed something to Ovid as well as to Aquitaine, and it was MARIE too, who urged Chretien de Troyes to fuse tales of love with tales of action, to turn love into an adventure, and the knight into a knight-errant. This was the real beginning of the institution of chivalry.”

Poetic Example

“Comrades, I shall write a decent poem

As I don't know where to turn without being upset

Because I have had so many bad receptions,

So I'll write a verse about nothing at all

I'll write a verse, while I'm dozing off.

I would like people to know

Since we see blossoming again

That I shall write a new little song

To celebrate that I begin to love

With the sweetness of springtime

And I feel like singing.”

William IX The Troubadour of Aquitaine

- compiled & translation Sharon Doubell

-------------------- William IX "the Troubadour" Duke of Aquitaine

William IX "the Troubadour" Duke of Aquitaine was born on 22 October 1071. He was the son of William VIII Duke of Aquitaine and Hildegarde of Burgundy. William IX "the Troubadour" Duke of Aquitaine married Philippa of Toulouse, daughter of William IV Count of Toulouse and Emma of Mortain, in 1094. William IX "the Troubadour" Duke of Aquitaine died on 10 February 1126 at age 54.

-------------------- William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to this was to demand absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop completed reading the anathema, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, "I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess Dangereuse (Dangerosa), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her nickname La Maubergeonne), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess." Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevraud, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. While in residence she may have had direct conversations or correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois, who was in constant contact with Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey. Philippa did not remain there long, however: the abbey records state that she died on the 28 November 1118.

William IX (Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus; French: Guillaume de Poitiers) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have a certain historical importance, he is best known as the earliest troubadour — a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language — whose work survived.

Ducal career

William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife, Hildegarde of Burgundy. His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court, but the Church at first considered him illegitimate because of his father's earlier divorces and his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William's legitimacy.

Early career, 1088–1102

William inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father. In 1088, at the age of only sixteen, William married his first wife, Ermengarde, the daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou. She was reputedly beautiful and well-educated, but also suffered from severe mood-swings, vacillating between vivacity and sullenness. She was considered a nag, and had a habit of retiring in bad temper to a cloister after an argument, cutting off all contact with the outside world until suddenly making a reappearance at court as if her absence had never occurred. Such behaviour, coupled with her failure to conceive a child, led William to send her back to her father and have the marriage dissolved (1091).

In 1094 he remarried to Philippa, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse. By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including his eventual successor, William X. His second son, Raymond, eventually became the Prince of Antioch in the Holy Land, and his daughter Agnes married firstly Aimery V of Thouars and then Ramiro II of Aragon, reestablishing dynastic ties with that ruling house.

William invited Pope Urban II to spend the Christmas of 1095 at his court. The pope urged him to "take the cross" (i.e. the First Crusade) and leave for the Holy Land, but William was more interested in exploiting the absence on Crusade of Raymond IV of Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press a claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the Crusade of 1101, an expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099. To finance it, he had to mortgage Toulouse back to Bertrand, the son of Raymond IV.

The Duchess was an admirer of Robert of Arbrissel and persuaded William to grant him land in Northern Poitou to establish a religious community dedicated to the Virgin Mary [2]. This became Fontevraud Abbey, which would enjoy the patronage of William's granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and would remain important until its dissolvement during the French Revolution.

William arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His record as a military leader is not very impressive. He fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness led to his being ambushed on several occasions, with great losses to his own forces. In September 1101, his entire army was destroyed by the Seljuk Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped, and, according to Orderic Vitalis, he reached Antioch with only six surviving companions.

Conflict with Church and wife, 1102–1118

William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to this was to demand absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop completed reading the anathema, before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, "I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess Dangereuse (Dangerosa), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her nickname La Maubergeonne), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return Dangereuse to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess." Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevraud, where she was befriended, ironically, by Ermengarde of Anjou, William's first wife. While in residence she may have had direct conversations or correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois, who was in constant contact with Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey. Philippa did not remain there long, however: the abbey records state that she died on the 28 November 1118.

Later career, 1118–1126

Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained—although it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven-year revolt in order to avenge his mother's mistreatment, as Ralph of Diceto claimed, only to be captured by his father. Other records flatly contradict such a thing. Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 1113; but at that time, the young William was only thirteen and his father's liaison with Dangereuse had not yet begun. Father and son improved their relationship after the marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault, Dangereuse's daughter by her husband, in 1121.

William was readmitted to the Church around 1120, after making concessions to it. However, he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first wife, Ermengarde, who had, upon the death of Philippa, stormed down from Fontevrault to the Poitevin court, demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of Aquitaine—presumably in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa. In October 1119, she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims being held by Pope Calixtus II and demanded that the Pope excommunicate William (again), oust Dangereuse from the ducal palace, and restore herself to her rightful place. The Pope "declined to accommodate her"; however, she continued to trouble William for several years afterwards, thereby encouraging him to join the Reconquista efforts underway in Spain.

Between 1120 and 1123 William joined forces with the Kingdoms of Castile and León. Aquitanian troops fought side by side with Castilians in an effort to take Cordoba. During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the seventh century.

In 1122, William lost control of Toulouse, Philippa's dower land, to Alfonso Jordan, the son and heir of Raymond IV, who had taken Toulouse after the death of William IV. He did not trouble to reclaim it. He died on 10 February 1126, aged 55, after suffering a short illness.

Poetic career

William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a troubadour — a lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular language called Provençal or Occitan.

He was the earliest troubadour whose work survives. Eleven of his songs survive (Merwin, 2002). The song traditionally numbered as the eighth (Farai chansoneta nueva) is of dubious attribution, since its style and language are significantly different (Pasero 1973, Bond 1982). Song 5 (Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh) has two significantly different versions in different manuscripts. The songs are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou (lo coms de Peitieus). The topics vary, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual and literary prowess, and feudal politics.

An anonymous 13th-century vida of William remembers him thus:

The Count of Poitiers was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his womanizing, and a fine composer and singer of songs. He traveled much through the world, seducing women.

It is possible, however, that at least in part it is not based on facts, but on literal interpretation of his songs, written in first person; in Song 5, for example, he describes how he deceived two women.

His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Petrarch, and François Villon. Ezra Pound mentions him in Canto VIII:

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers,

had brought the song up out of Spain

with the singers and viels...

In Spirit of Romance Pound also calls William IX "the most 'modern' of the troubadours":

For any of the later Provençals, i.e., the high-brows, we have to... 'put ourselves into the Twelfth Century' etc. Guillaume, writing a century earlier, is just as much of our age as of his own.

—Ezra Pound, cited in Bond 1982, p. lxxvi

William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since the Merovingian era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.

One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz (Since I have the desire to sing,/I'll write a verse for which I'll grieve). It concludes:

I have given up all I loved so much:

chivalry and pride;

and since it pleases God, I accept it all,

that He may keep me by Him.

I enjoin my friends, upon my death,

all to come and do me great honor,

since I have held joy and delight

far and near, and in my abode.

Thus I give up joy and delight,

and squirrel and grey and sable furs.

Orderic Vitalis refers to William composing songs (c. 1102) upon his return from the Crusade of 1101. These might be the first "Crusade songs":

Then the Poitevin duke many times related, with rhythmic verses and witty measures, the miseries of his captivity, before kings, magnates, and Christian assemblies.

-------------------- Husband of Philippa of Toulouse Noble family House of Poitiers Father William VIII of Aquitaine Mother Hildegarde of Burgundy Born 22 October 1071 Died 10 February 1126 (aged 54) --------------------

French nobility, also called the young or the Troubadour, Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony as Guillaume VII also Count of Poitou. He was the only son of Guillaume VIII and his third wife Hildegarde de Bourgogne. He succeeded his father in 1088 and married Ermengarde de Anjou in the following year. The marriage seems to have been not very happy. Her mood swings and unpredictable behavior, coupled with the failure to conceive a child led to the dissolution of the marriage.

Around 1094 he married countess Philippa de Toulouse, heiress of Guillaume IV. With her he had two sons and five daughters. His reign was dominated by the conflict with the St-Gilles family for the power in Toulouse. After he had conquered Toulouse for the first time he sold his rights to Bertrand de St-Gilles to have enough money for a crusade. In March 1101 he started with Welf IV of Bavaria for the Holy Land. In September, after passing through Constantinople his army was defeated at Heraclea. He was able to flee and reached Antioch with only six men.

After visiting Jerusalem he returned home in fall 1102. He kidnapped the willing Dangereuse de l'Isle-Bouchard, wife of Aimery de Chatellerault and installed her in his castle in Poitiers. She became his mistress and bore him five children including Raimund of Antioch. When Philippa returned from Toulouse to find she had been replaced she appealed to the church and accused her husband openly of adultery. Even after being excommunicated he refused to part from Dangereuse. Philippa retired to Fontevrault where she died a year later.